The White Pendant
by peanutblue
Summary: A new hero takes on a new threat in the Battle City Tournament.


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* * *

Author's Note: The stories of Lance's adventures take place during the Battle City Tournament of the Yu-Gi-Oh! animated televisions show. The stories fit in with the show's continuity. As such, the stories follow the TV show rules: new cards will be made up and real cards work differently than they do in the real life TCG. Also, the rules of the game as a whole are slightly different from those in the real world. I hope I don't do much worse than the show._

_Notice also that I haven't seen every episode of the show, and have read practically none of the manga, so if some of my story doesn't quite fit continuity, I apologize. It's probably going to happen more than once._

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All official characters belong to Konami and Kid's WB or what have you, and I claim no ownership. My original characters such as Tim, Lance, and Elsar and Tengar, along with any cards I make up such as The Wizard of Light and Spell Summoning are my own property. You can e-mail me at for permission to use my intellectual property._

_More to follow if you enjoy it._

Tim clutched his two remaining cards in a death grip and wiped a strand of sweat from his brow. It wasn't looking good. He adjusted his glasses and drew his card.

"I summon Robotic Knight 1600/1800," he said, placing the card sideways on his Duel Disk. "In Defense Mode. Then I end my turn."

"This is it!" the dark man on the other side of the field declared. "My Luster Dragon destroys your Robotic Knight. Now, my Masked Dragon finishes off your life points!"

Tim watched in horror as his last 500 life points were reduced to zero. The monsters on the field dissipated as Tim fell to his knees. The opponent, clad in dark black robes with a hood covering most of his face, approached Tim and reached out a hand.

"Your locator card," he said. "And your rarest card, too."

Tim, fumbling, handed the dark man his locator card and The Sacred Phoenix of Nepthys.

"Good," the opponent said. "Now I'm one step closer to the finals: one step closer to taking the Millenium puzzle!"

The dark man walked away into the streets of Battle City, leaving Tim speechless by the side of the road.

* * *

Four blocks west, Lance Futur was doing much better. He drew his card with confidence and surveyed the field. His opponent, a twenty-year old girl named Sarah, had one magic or trap card face down and Sangan in attack position. Her Sangan had just destroyed the weak monster he had played in attack mode, taking two hundred of Lance's life points but leaving Sarah open to an attack. He glanced at the card he had just drawn. Perfect.

"I activate Change of Heart," Lance said, targeting Sangan on his Duel Disk.

"I counter with De-Spell!" Sarah replied, turning over her face down card. Lance's Change of Heart exploded off of the field.

Lance smiled."Perfect! You fell right into my trap!" Lance's face down card spun over. "I activate Spell Summoning! When you use a spell card to negate another spell card, Spell Summoning allows me to summon a high level monster without tribute! I summon the Wizard of Light!"

Mist swirled in the center of the dueling area. A brilliant white light appeared, parted, and revealed the prize card of Lance's deck: a towering wizard wrapped in white robes and carrying a bright yellow staff. The numbers "2800/1400" appeared beneath him. "I also activate Call of the Haunted to return my Light Mage from the graveyard." A new wizard, similar to but smaller than the Wizard of Light, appeared next to The Wizard of Light along with the numbers "1400/1000." "And the Wizard of Light gains 500 attack points for every light monster on the field. This duel is over!"

The number under the Wizard of Light changed to "3300" as the monster attacked Sangan. Sarah's 2000 life points dropped to zero. Several people who had watched to duel applauded.

"No!" Sarah cried. "Now you'll take my only locator card and my rare Gemini Elf!"

Lance shook his head and extended a hand to Sarah. "No, just your locator card. I don't want to take your favorite card. I'm not into that."

"Really?"

"Really. The next time we duel, I want you to have that Gemini Elf to help your deck be more of a challenge."

"Thanks, Lance," Sarah said. "I look forward to another duel."

Sarah walked off as Lance collected his cards from the graveyard and field and shuffled them together. He ran a hand through his short blond hair and glanced behind him as his best friend, Lea, ran up to him, clapping.

"That was awesome," Lea cried. She stopped right next to Lance, her long black hair whipping past him in the wind. "You have this tournament in the bag!"

"I don't know about that," Lance replied. "There are a lot of awesome duelists here. I saw Weevil Underwood and Joey Wheeler this morning. I've got a long way to go."

Lea checked her program for the tournament. "Still, only the best duelists get to come, so don't put yourself down. You almost won that tournament in Soothtown last month."

"After falling out of Duelist Kingdom in my first duel."

"Yeah, but you didn't have The Wizard of Light back then. Your deck is much stronger now."

Lance took out his prize card and looked at it. "This is an incredibly powerful card. But it won't win the thing for me. I need every card in my deck to compete with guys like Yugi Muto and Seto Kaiba."

"You've got two locator cards already, and it's still the first day. You'll be set up for the finals within a few hours."

"I hope so," Lance said. "What is that you're looking at?"

"This program is all about the tournament. There's a café offering discounts to anyone with a Duel Disk. I told Tim we would meet him there at noon. You want to head out?"

"Sure..." Lance said, staring off into the distance.

"What's wrong?" Lea asked, touching his hand.

"I don't know." Lance frowned, then shook his head. "I just get the feeling that something, somewhere, is wrong."

"Like the feeling you got that time you met Pagasus?"

"Kind of like that. But different. I don't know. It's probably nothing."

"You're probably just hungry. Let's go get you something to eat."

* * *

Lance and Lea had hardly walked in the door of the café when Tim ran to them and pushed them out the door.

"Woa, Tim, what's up?" Lea asked.

"We have to go," Tim said. "I need to talk to you guys."

"Okay," Lance said, noting Tim's distressed face. "Talk to us."

The trio of friends walked out of the building and into a nearby alley before Tim would speak.

"There are evil people here," he said.

"Evil?" Lea asked.

"Yeah, evil."

* * *

Four hours earlier, Tim had separated from Lance and Tea to find an opponent to get his first new locator card. He walked down the street looking for anyone with a Duel Disk. It was half an hour before he found someone: a man in a black hooded robe, much out of place in the warm weather of Domino City. The man was a good fifty yards ahead of Tim, so he hurried to catch up. The dark man turned around a corner. Tim followed seconds later, but the man was nowhere to be found.

"They are here," a voice said. Tim looked around, but couldn't find the men in the alley. He continued walking.

"Yes, Tengar," a second voice said. "My Black Pendant senses several Millenium Items here in Battle City."

"I agree, Elsar. My Red Pendant feels the same thing. And the rest are on the way."

Tim realized there was something ominous in the voices, and slowed his walk. He thought he saw one of the men up ahead. He quickly hid behind a nearby dumpster and listened carefully.

"It is finally time. After all of the time we've spent preparing, we are just a few duels away from possessing all seven Millennium Items."

"Yes. But remember not to underestimate our opponents. Our decks are strong, but Yugi Muto duels with the wisdom of the Pharaoh Yami."

"I know, and Kaiba is a strong duelist as well. But our decks are perfect, and we've been preparing for years."

Tim heard a few footsteps as one of them paced in thought.

"Soon, Elsar, the Millenium items will be ours, and so too the world."

Tim started slowly walking backwards. He had no idea what these guys were talking about, but they sounded like bad news. He knew the legends of the Millenium Items, but he had always thought them a myth. Still, Pegasus claimed to have the Eye, and Yugi Muto wore a Puzzle that looked just like the one from the old legends...

Could it be true? Could there be a boundless power available to anyone who possessed all seven?

If so, these two men didn't sound like the best people to bear the items.

Tim stepped backwards to run for help and kicked an old soda can in on the ground. The can hit the wall with a distinctly noticeable _ding_.

"What was that?"

With that, the two men walked around the dumpster to see Tim. The men looked like twins: both had dark skin with heads bald but for long black ponytails. both had marks tattooed around their eyes. Both wore long black robes concealing anything else they might have been wearing. Both had Duel Disks on their arms.

In fact, the only thing separating the two were the pendants they wore around their necks: Elsar wore a black necklace while Tengar's was red.

"Who are you?" Tengar asked.

Tim stammered. "I— I... just..."

"He wears a Duel Disk, brother," Elsar said.

Tengar smiled, and evil smile that chilled Tim to the bone. "Perfect. Here is where I get my second locator card, the second piece to getting to the finals where all of the Millenium Items are sure to meet."

Tim found a courage somewhere within him that he had never felt before. "I won't let you collect the Items."

"Then it is time to duel," Tengar said, activating his Duel Disk.

"I trust you can handle the kid," Elsar said. He walked toward the end of the alley. "I will go find my own opponent. You know where to meet." With that, Elsar left Tengar alone with Tim.

"This is it, kid. You ready?"

Tim activated his own Duel Disk. "Yes. Let's do it."

The two Duel Disks folded out to duel positions and the holoprojectors shot out to good locations for rendering the game in 3D. Both life point counters shot up to 4000.

"You go first," Tengar said.

"Fine," Tim replied, trembling slightly. He drew his sixth card and smiled. One of his strongest low level monsters! "I summon X Head Cannon in attack mode!"

The yellow machine monster appeared on the field along with the numbers 1800/1500.

"That's a good monster," Tengar said. "But not good enough. I summon Luster Dragon #2!" The shimmering sapphire dragon whirled to life on the field with the numbers 1900/1600. "Attack his X Head Cannon!" The machine was destroyed, and Tim's life points fell to 3900. "I place one card face down and end my turn."

_Not good_, Tim thought. _That's a small hit to my life points, but his Luster Dragon will be tough to beat. Unless..._ He looked at his cards and formulated a plan.

"I summon Helping Robo for Combat in attack mode!" The small machine appeared on the field, 1600/0. Then I play Limiter Removal to double his attack!" The Helping Robo on the field flashed as if being filled with energy, and his ATK rose to 3200. "Go, Helping Robo! Attack his Luster Dragon!" The robot went in for the kill.

Tengar smiled. "I activate my trap card, Waboku!" The trap card flipped up, and a shield formed over his Luster Dragon. "Waboku negates your attack. And since your turn is over, and you played Limiter Removal on your machine monster..."

"He is destroyed," Tim finished. He watched in horror as the Helping Robo burst into a shower of sparks.

"Now I summon Masked Dragon 1400/1100! Both dragons, attack his life points directly!" The two dragons on Tengar's field attacked Tim, knocking him to his knees. His life points dropped to 500.

Tim gulped, knowing this duel was all but over.

* * *

Hours later, Tim tried to keep from crying as he finished his story.

"Wow," Lance said. "That guy has a solid deck. He'll be tough to beat."

"You can't duel him!" Tim said. "He'll destroy you. And he's evil. Who knows what those two guys will do if they get all seven of these Millennium Items, whatever they are."

Lea nodded. "We can't let him get all seven."

"That's not our problem," Lance said. "I don't care about these items, I just want to get Tim's Sacred Phoenix back. We went through a lot to get that card."

"Perhaps you should care about the Millennium Items," a voice said behind them.

The three friends spun around quickly. Behind them was a tall man with dark skin and white robes. A golden key hung around his neck.

"Who are you," Lance asked, "and what do you know about the Millennium Items?"

"My name is Shadi. And this key I wear around my neck is one of the Items. Come, we have much to talk about."


End file.
